Two decades and four years ago, Malcolm Gladwell introduced ‘The Tipping Point’, focusing on the unseen societal forces propelling various types of societal change. Gladwell’s book was globally acclaimed, becoming a bestseller and informing the views of politicians, policymakers, and corporate heads.
Since then, Gladwell, a native of Canada, has continued to thrive in his career as an author, journalist and podcast host. Numerous other authors have utilised his framework, creating popular social science as a stand-alone literary genre. Currently, Gladwell revisits the subjects that fuelled his initial book, with a stronger focus on our bleak modern times. His latest work, ‘Revenge of the Tipping Point’, primarily addresses why detrimental occurrences such as suicide, addiction, corruption and disease take place and their propensity to spread.
Over the years, his strategy remained largely the same: he identifies hidden patterns or ‘overstories’ that have been overlooked by others, for instance, the relationship between a 1930s detective in San Francisco and the U.S. opioid crisis seven decades later.
Admittedly, some of his theories are tenuous. For example, his assertion that “group dynamics remain stable when minority views constitute approximately one-third of the total size” might be unexpected to Northern Ireland historians. Nevertheless, Gladwell consistently leaves room for variable factors and even the potential for his own incorrectness— he has withdrawn support for the impactful ‘broken windows’ theory on crime strategy, a theory he championed in ‘The Tipping Point’.
It is also argued that some of these linkages seem more spiritually inclined than the result of logical reasoning. Gladwell’s pondering on why the atrocities of the Holocaust took considerable time to enter public awareness starts compellingly with accounts of concentration camp survivors in post-war Los Angeles. However, the discussion overly concentrates on the 1978 Holocaust TV series. The series undoubtedly played an instrumental role but Gladwell neglects its position amidst broader political and cultural attitude changes. In this, and similar cases, he appears more captivated by his related anecdotes.
Providing occasional food for thought, this book, in the end, does not equate to more than its commonly entertaining components.